Naruto: The Ideas That Never Were
by Heliosion
Summary: This is a collection of stories, ideas and things that I started but never really got off the ground! So enjoy and take if you want. All ideas are up for adoption!
1. Chapter 1

Naruto: My way

Uzumaki

By Heliosion

Chapter One: The Boy That Came From The Sea

Disclaimer: In honour of the Uchiha clan I am issuing a new disclaimer which is this. If I owned Naruto I wouldn't have made it so Madara didn't take the piss with the super powers. Hey I'm bored I know I'll give myself the rinnegan! - Point taken no?

I have taken on the watchful eye of Maneyan whose fic 'Ouroboros' you should all check out right away as my beta or most accurately my stricter quality control expert! Thanks!

XreviewX

She had seen every day of the Shinobi era, the five nations who employed the five great hidden shinobi villages and carried emotional scars from the torrid hell that came before it. She'd seen the founding of leafy Konoha, lived there surrounded by trees by the side of the mighty Shodaime Hokage whose power had made the forests that existed there to this day. She had married her soul mate there, watching his bright dream come alive by his own hands as they had children who in turn had children of their own. Konoha had grown up from a tiny outcrop of small clans banding together for safety after almost two centuries of fractured tiny states hiring these roaming clans to fight endless conflicts whose origins had been forgotten ages ago to seek shelter and pursue the dream of an endless peace in the mighty walled village. Those ancient protections had weathered two shinobi wars and the destruction of her homeland, their greatest ally Uzushiogakure no Sato, the land hidden in the ebbing tides.

She had done much and accomplished far more than was expected. From a mere simple only child of her island village's greatest fuin master whom fate had been spared from becoming a measly broodmare. Over a hundred valuable years she had gained much of wisdom, knowledge and talent that led her husband to seal the Kyubi no Kitsune inside her using her homeland's jutsu. He hadn't wanted to at first, how he had agonised about it for weeks until Madara forced his hand until the thought of ever letting any of the Biju roam free in the Shodaime's eyes was a disaster just waiting to happen. They were rightfully seen so as natural disasters since ancient time, cold unfeeling killing machines comprised of pure energy that laid waste to anything in their path without warning or reasoning. He had wanted to seal them all into objects and bury them deep into the earth forever denied their disastrous place in the world order. Monsters did not promote peace, monsters only created strife, turmoil and sadness; the best breeding ground for wars that Hashirama had grown tired of after honing his skills through them over a lifetime until his clan was on top.

Together with his greatest enemy once upon a time Uchiha Madara, Konoha had blossomed. Seeing two fire shadows take the seat of power after her beloved husband died from wounds sustained in a legendary battle. Said battle was still fresh as the day she was there at the Valley of the End with the beautiful Sharingan eyes beguiling the tailed nine tailed kitsune to do his bidding had forced her husband to break his vow and seal the beast within his beloved wife. The man had killed his old enemy in the end but after that Mito wasn't the same.

That ache grew with the loss of the Nidaime, her beloved brother in law who she drew much comfort from. He'd sacrificed himself in the name of his brother's 'will of fire' that everyone in the village drew amazing inner strength from. Much like Uzushiogakure no Sato that believed in family her husband had drawn inspiration and did the logical next step by extending it to all of his villagers. Now the Sandaime a mere child taking the big chair was getting old too but had done much to create the peace his two predecessors could only dream of.

Uzumaki Mito had done her duty as jailer to the fox and her mission had been completed two months ago by passing the fox to her great-great grandniece three years ago after hearing the destruction of her home. Soon it seemed war was coming again.

So Uzumaki Mito knowing she was going to die soon without the addictive qualities of the Kyubi no Kitsune's chakra had returned to the remnants of what used to be her first home. She was sitting on the lone mountaintop overlooking the entire island where a shrine sat behind her from ages past worshipping a god whose name had been lost to the seven winds. On the summit under the protective Shinto gates used as a barrier to keep out the elements to let an old woman rest in peace was her simple wooden abode. It had been built by the seven hidden ANBU agents keeping watch over her at all times. She tolerated the intrusion when all she desired was to die in peace but she could bare it.

There wasn't much time left for her but Mito had the scent of the salty sea, the fresh crisp air and the silence in which to embrace the whistling of the breeze. These had been among her most cherished memories, childhood recollections of a world where there hadn't been five great shinobi nations constantly feuding with each other in secrecy. It was a time of uncertainty, her homeland's only defence was its impassable moving whirlpools mapped out religiously by their self-sustaining community who did little to draw the attention of slavers and those who might take advantage of their isolation.

It was of little comfort to her aching bones that the fox used to soothe or corrected her weakening heart now kept at bay purely by the dwindling medication of her great granddaughter, the Densetsu no Sannin made for her last pilgrimage. The poor dear was now the last of what had been a mighty clan and many feared she would be it. Mito was not upset at this. If she had learned anything about life it was time played no favourites with anyone not even this old woman whose clan was known for its unusual longevity and whose fuinjutsu had started this new era by attracting her wonderful husband whom had been searching for his distant family.

That day had been the best day of her life. Here on Uzushio where the water lilies bloomed at night with the rays of this full moon, the time of year and the season when the love of her life came to her. It was tradition back then to walk up here and take in the scent which they had done once before they departed from here forever with her as a price of the alliance formed between the Senju and the Uzumaki clans. It was here her father had the stimulation to create the fuin that controlled the whirlpools that gave this lost village its namesake and what her mother, may the gods bless her soul had informed her father one cold winter night wrapped up in a blanket she was going to marry him or else.

Mito chuckled in the seiza position, her tired legs on a silk rug that sat on the smooth mountain floor. Behind her the wind carried from the carnivorous shrine cave singing a song that some thought was the nameless god's voice promising protection. A hot cup of tea was entertaining her withered fingers and helped the shakes her body went from craving the potent chakra of the absent fox. The empty seal was cracked now being filled in with her chakra gradually killing her with nothing to regulate it so it was a race. She had no clue of what her cause of death might be between her deteriorating body, addiction and the seal absorbing all her chakra faster than her beleaguered coils could make it to finish off what many considered the mother of the modern era.

In many ways it was hardly a warrior's death. Mito could live with that, symbolic as it was and wished her time might come to pass before her aged eyes could see another pointless war her entire family had fought to prevent happening ever again.

The porcelain moon shimmered off the gentle ocean floor. Right at the far end so far her gaze could only make out an indistinct blur sat an island wreathed in black from the shadow cast by the high outcropping rock close by when a crimson red light suddenly replaced it. Her breath hitched when she instantly associated it with blood before the familiar bloodlust crept on her like someone with cold feet was walking on top of her. A weight filled her chest, the battered well used heart trembled like a timorous mouse and her reminiscing turned to the darker part of her life. Her first kill and his eyes that stared forever into eternity, her husband's dead body being brought back in with an honour guard, Mito was taken back to that day, could feel the same texture of her hand remembering that same finite cold of his dead cooling fingers… The paralysing horrors only the life of a professional killer could brew had her clutching the rug so to control herself, anchoring her from the instinctive urge to pee herself from fear.

What that was should be impossible. It belonged in another land far from here. Why was the Kyubi no Kitsune's malevolent chakra here? Kushina… Oh god her anxiety ran wild of scenarios of another home destroyed. Her façade of controlled serenity crumbled then an iron steel trap mind wrestled control and her calculating kunoichi mind took over. Had the war started already? Was her stubborn body betraying her and her final wish? Her imagination depicted her burning village and poor, poor Kushina whom had found the love with Namikaze Minato, a good honest man to help her contain her new burden… Kushina's phantom bloody corpse appeared in front of her and was more painful than the presence of that foul fiend's chakra.

"Mito-sama, your orders?" The ANBU agent known as Eagle had snuck up behind her taking her unawares. Fumbling battle instincts ravaged by ill health were slow to pull a senbon from one of the buns on top of her head. She was halfway from pulling it out of her fading red locks standing up to engage when her aged mind and the shattering tea cup reminded her above the escalating feeling of impending violence this was a safe person. Her aborted movements made her wobble and the agent was forced to catch her before she fell.

Professional to the end she did not show embarrassment when action was needed. Age had ravaged her body but nothing could take away the fiery soul shared by all members of her lost clan.

"Summon everyone here. Send nobody to the scene and dispatch your fastest person post haste to Konoha," ordered Mito. She stood up on her own, shaking the aid of the ANBU agent in the sleeping kimono she'd worn her first night in that tent with her new husband deep in the woods. She drew strength from that first union interrupted by an ambush by the Uchiha clan. Much other sorts of virginity, a source of everlasting embarrassment to her grandchildren when she made note of them had been taken that night, some she'd never desired to lose.

The face of that young man she killed still haunted her today as did the blood spatter she carried on her clothes during the retreat for three days from his crushed trachea.

"Yes Mito-sama," the male ANBU assented, drawing a breath and whistling with a sharp pitch. While out of practice she was able to hear the other agents appearing in shunshin around her weapons armed and one of their numbers, missing presumably to inform Sarutobi…

Oh she hoped there was someone to inform of this incident, that she'd made a mistake somehow. Mito had seen up close several of the Biju given out as tokens of peace by her idealistic husband to other nations, enemies and allies alike after she herself was given one but none of them were the same. Mito swore she desired nothing else but it to be something other than Kyubi.

"All of us are heading to the island with the red light. We may have a Biju on our…"

That red power vanished as swiftly as it appeared. Black returned with the white splashes of white accentuating the sea's tranquil beauty. The men around her were more startled by the sudden shift in demeanour around them than the rapid coming of the Biju itself. Her chakra senses that were distorted by the overwhelming emotion of hatred of the red lingering like a torrid chemical gas could now feel a familiar special blue chakra that Mito had thought only belonged to her and her niece now. Her old heart raced again only for different reasons.

"Mito-sama?" Eagle asked warily though he hid it well. She wasn't surprised by the slip in professionalism. It was hard to say just how that will destroying force could simply up and vanish with no trace. Nothing remained of it which again was impossible. Much like radiation a Biju left traces that for months after a rampage left a tingling sensation in the vicinity of its rage easy enough to identify. The first encounter she had with the Ichibi controlled by Suna was proof of that. Trade didn't pick up in that village until the remnants had been cast aside like the wind from the sandy desert.

"We go to the island and investigate what occurred. We'll form a triangle formation with me in the lead."

"Mito-sama?" asked Eagle sceptically. Underneath that mask was a very handsome boy, a worrywart but a good boy with a big future in front of him. Fifty years ago the lack of formality would've had him flogged before her husband in the desire to create cohesion between the clans banned the practice.

God bless her husband for creating soldiers that cared about their superiors.

"You heard me Eagle," Mito said firmly, "I might be old but you can surely sense that…" That blue chakra signature spiked as a concussive wave of thick, less wielding energy poured across the land. She gasped at the potency never had she felt such turgid power which became loose and free like it had been bottled then went pop. What kind of phenomena did such a thing? Her closest reference was a storage fuin that malfunctioned and released all the constrained up energy in one spot. "With haste please everyone. I know a few shortcuts."

Then with sprightliness no woman of her advanced years should ever have the small weathered woman lifted up her kimono to above her wrinkled knees and ran down the side of the mountain. ANBU followed her, one again the worrisome Eagle ever hovering over her like she was decrepit and slightly out of formation braced to catch her. Oh she found it cute after all she'd been fighting when he was a twinkle in his great grandfather's eye and when she was prepared she would still give the team around her a run for their money in a sparring match… If it lasted no more than three minutes of course…

Mito did ignite the two fuin papers hanging from the buns on her head. They were ingenious; a legacy of eccentric fuin masters that when active created a chakra bubble that in turn pulled the pooling chakra in the empty Biju seal outwards a little into her withering tenketsu to provide her with the energy for her acrobatics. Later on she would ache something horrible and suffer more subdued mollycoddling from Eagle. From the stress this placed on her, the chakra field actually was illuminated by any contact with the moon she would be feeling something as if she had been using the Biju itself when her dwindling tenketsu and chakra pathways throbbed from overwork. Like her relaxed manner in which she accepted her retreat from the world of the living her powers were also getting slothful.

If this wasn't an emergency she would see this as good exercise and a rush to sweep away the boredom. She remembered so much fun when she learned to run on the azure ocean and climb the largest tree in the Senju compound Hashirama grew just for her children to practice on.

Her gaze never left the island if it was possible. It was dangerous to jump on the ruins themselves, the fragile husks of wooden buildings like bones left exposed and she had little desire to disturb them so ran through the narrow refuse strewn streets of the village. Every corner had a ghost, every building; shop and abandoned place of commerce had a vague impression for her of another life. Names that belonged to nothing people with smiling faces, street names that were now mere vapours in the annals of history only existing now in her heart. They all stirred something positively ancient it seemed at times in her long lived memory.

On that island, this mass grave defiled by cowardly Iwa whose leader Ōnoki the scoundrel and Kiri… Poor, poor Kirigakure shrouded in shadows and mist that island in the middle of the sea was where another of her brothers and sisters were waiting. An Uzumaki which she was more certain of the closer she got until she reached the beleaguered harbour where the boat they came on was moored.

She stopped suddenly making the men scatter automatically into a circle formation. She smiled ever so brightly when it was confirmed. That chakra signature belonged to her clan! That was another Uzumaki standing on that island waiting. He or she hadn't moved from the spot. Mito laughed gaily at the miracle! There was another whose chakra flowed like hers! Like Kushina! There were rumours of other Uzumaki in other lands but never had she felt another.

"Mito-sama?" Eagle asked carefully, "Why are you crying?"

Mito reached for her cheek and softly chortled when she wiped a tear from both eyes with her long sleeves.

"There is an Uzumaki on that island Eagle," Mito stated jovially.

"Are you sure Mito-sama?" Eagle said, "That felt like a Biju. I fought one during the tail end of the last war with my squad. A Jin…"

"A Jinchuuriki," Mito corrected automatically, the very meaning of that phrase made her frown no matter how many times she heard it. But he was correct. There was no explanation for the appearance then disappearance of that volume of hostile energy. It simply wasn't done like that. When you let out the beast you had to struggle to rein it back in fighting a constant war on who was the samurai and who were the daimyo until one remained in charge. She had seen intelligence reports of multiple Nanabi hosts failing because they couldn't regain control after activation and had to be killed. "But perhaps you're right; I will determine what is going on here."

The aged fuin master gestured for her team to fall back into the borders of the ruin village. They did so, in synch drawing their ninjato and slinking shuriken or kunai between the fingers of the other. Two turned their back on the woman to act as lookouts using their sensor talents and Mito with excitement…hope…faith in her heart removed several fuin paper strips from within her robes.

She bit her ravaged thumb strewing blood by manipulating the crimson fluid with agile movements of her fingers. Every finger apart from her thumb holding the paper were lightly dashed with crimson and painted with ease several fuin scripts. With those papers ready, screaming epithets of her talents she flung them high above her and formed a ram seal. The papers on contact with her flare of chakra turned stiff like a corpse in rigor mortis and landed vertically around the women. The seals burned blue and then linking in the centre before firing out like a laser beam over to the island the seals gathered energy and focused streams of light until it was a burning sphere of blue light in front of her. The blue beams of light shot over the top of the island where she hoped the Uzumaki lay (she was so sure but Eagle had thrown a figurative bucket of cold water on her exuberance) and then exploded like a shooting star. The shooting star turned into a chakra cage that if a Biju carrying shinobi or kunoichi was there would alert her by turning the barrier red.

She sighed with relief audibly when nothing came back. There wasn't a Jinchuuriki there and whatever demonic chakra had been there was long gone. But with a straight face she addressed her shinobi guards. Hope continued to flare as the Uzumaki did nothing, moved nowhere which in itself screamed of a trap. For his meddling Eagle was a wise man with a good head on his shoulders. Good enough to see why Sarutobi appointed him as her caretaker. It seemed years of retirement had worn out a few of her deductive processes that had killed better shinobi than she was.

"Spearhead formation, I will be in the rear this time Eagle." She hesitated for a moment, indecision on if she should come at this aggressively were quashed by the prompt obeying of her orders that she nearly was left behind. The entire squad plus the dying Shodaime Hokage's wife skipped across the water barely disturbing the surface and the inky depths were oddly welcoming to the woman. As a girl she nearly drowned exploring the ocean but it never deterred her from swimming. But those same feelings, helplessness, fear and that dash of excitement that made her mother pull her hair out hoping it might stop her tomboy child playing with the older boys were in vain were with her now. They reminded her again of her first child being born, the uncertainty of who would become the Nidaime when Sakumo Hatake was suggested and nearly won the position.

She was deep in memory lane tonight. It made her feel old but yet this person waiting for them on that lonely exposed island could be something new, a legacy to help her clan become alive once more. With the moon soaking it in milky light her poorer eyesight saw a figure looking out to the sea and with one hand outstretched as if trying to hold the moon. The closer she reached the more disturbing things seemed to be. This person did not move although her ANBU squad had deliberately made a sound to test his reactions. His chakras were active, a shinobi he or she had to be. Mito closed in forming the tail of the arrowhead directly parallel to Eagle.

The first thing that was out of place was the fact the person was naked. He was standing there looking at the moon unaffected by the cool night air or the sea water that splashed his bare body. He had no cover on the flat piece of rock once used as a lookout but abandoned long before she was born where time had swept away any trace. He was tanned, bronzed like he spent a lot of time in the sun all over and blonde. Instead of hair the colour of blood it was long flowing blonde locks down to his shoulders flowing freely to indicate the direction of the breeze.

But it was there. Blonde haired or not that Uzumaki chakra was present. At this range the poorest sensor in the ANBU squad could tell that. It had a unique wavelength that made it thicker, powerful without any need to mould it.

When Eagle landed with his team on the island that was when the stranger turned round. At this range her eyesight poor as it was winced at the numerous fine scars on his torso. He looked unabashed at his nakedness, so liberal he made no effort to hide his genitals. His piercing blue eyes reminding her so much of Kushina's lover but without the intensity gazed at them all. They were blank, curious when combined with the tilt of his head as if he didn't understand what was going on himself. On his front framing his eight pack was a seal, a spiral, the trademark of the Uzumaki fuin techniques meant for sealing something but what? It appeared to have burnt out or failed outright leaving a permanent scar no healer could repair without an extreme skin transplant.

"Identify yourself!" Eagle demanded. His team swiftly encircled the naked intruder who looked harmless enough.

"Naruto," he replied softly, tilting his head again inquisitively. Mito's head was reeling at that one. Somebody called their child 'fishcake' of all things?

"And what is your purpose here?"

"I don't know," Naruto answered bewildered, "Do you know?"

He looked lost and confused. Mito could sense his lack of negative intentions thanks to the leftovers of her time as prison guard to the Kyubi No Kitsune or Kurama (god that had been a hard one to coax out of the grumpy old bastard). She still at close range harnessed the power to read negative intentions. Hell she sensed nothing from him like a blank slate. Did he have amnesia? What was the seal on his stomach for? Why was the Kyubi or another Biju here then gone in an instant? Why was the boy _naked_ of all things?

There were so many mysteries in one blonde boy that waited to be solved.

"You will tell us everything," Eagle demanded behind his mask, subtly signalling two of his subordinates to attack from his blind spots.

Mito realised his plan too late. It had been years since she was around ANBU on duty and the system of hand signs Tobirama-kun had created were obviously different. She called out to stop this foolishness seeing nothing dangerous about him but Mito was an old woman. Her words caught in her throat as the backlash of overusing the tags on her head lashed out from overuse. She caught her breath just as Cat and Lion attacked the boy.

Naruto was startled but then had blue eyes screaming of hard training. The teenager in classic Uzushio stance evaded the kick to his face by Cat by ducking, locking his lowered legs around Cat's solitary limb and knocked them over. He released Cat in time to allow the ninjato of Lion to blow his hair back with the displaced air from his skilled slash and fell into the path of Cat who recovered by grabbing the back of his neck and soaking him in lightning chakra.

Naruto fizzled from the discharge, his hair standing on end and went down hard. All of the ANBU sans Eagle surrounded and then weaved him head to toe in monofilament wire.

Mito with aid from Eagle carefully approached the teenager whom was struggling hard enough for the sharp wire to cut into his skin spilling rivets of crimson all over the stone. He looked blankly seemingly used to pain apart from a haggard shallow breath Mito identified as a meditative stance used to control pain by leaking minute amounts of chakra to the nerves. The ANBU prevented him from rolling around in case he fell into the ocean drowning so the old woman had the time to admire him.

Naruto up close was a very fit young man. His face, expressions and looks belonged to her family but the hair. Where had her clan member brother or sister found a blonde to mate with? Blonde hair belonged to Kumogakure, the northern countries it served and occasionally appeared in Konoha especially in the Yamanaka who migrated there after being betrayed by Kumogakure no Sato just prior to the formation of the village. Kumo was also a sworn enemy of Uzushio. What had influenced one of her people to seek shelter there?

That seal was also continuing to bug her. That was very out of place. It was in the wrong position for a storage seal for weapons or supplies and far too extravagant. She released a controlled pulse of chakra over the struggling boy and lit up the entire seal.

"Is that?" she gasped in surprise identifying it as the Shinigami's work. Parts of it were written in the divine script, one only a celestial of the ancient world could craft. Nobody knew what the symbols meant so creating divinity was impossible because well you had to know what they meant. In fuin theory meaning was derived by understanding. It was the main reason so few outside of her home village became interested in it. In the right hands devastating things could be done with fuinjutsu but it required years to master it, not so useful when somebody could whip up a few hand seals and spew fire balls of destruction or lightning bolts. But she could see the two four element seals wrapped around the Uzumaki spiral.

"What would you have us do with him Mito-sama?" Eagle asked. Cat had his ninjato around Naruto's jugular to still him from struggling. Naruto bore dark eyes at the ANBU and without warning smashed his forehead into Cat's mask, cracking it and dislodging a piece of the porcelain mask that cut through Naruto's scalp. With one leg he was back on both feet and in his palm a maelstrom of chakra came to life cutting through the wire holding him. It grew into the shape of a sphere as the teen pulled the wire off him and genuinely the entire ANBU retreated five feet in astonishment.

Mito was not very interested in that. Her amazement came from what she saw briefly on Naruto's lower back at the base of the spine. In the divine script a blackened mark, circular with a full translation in Kanji was a myth. It gave her the power to speak.

"Stop what you're doing now!" Mito barked dangerously. The ANBU stiffened at the request and surprisingly the blonde man seemed to listen and stopped his jutsu. He never left his stance.

"Mito-sama he's using Namikaze's rasengan!" Eagle declared. "He invented it just last year. Its impossible this man knows it."

The blonde hair did remind the woman of Minato. The blue eyes seemed to match and Mito had pondered the silly notion Minato could've been the child of a lost member because of his god like ability with fuin. The man had even consulted her once on the possibility of high speed rapid teleportation. She had offered a few hints until impatient Kushina dragged them on their night on the town. Was he a lost brother or cousin? Poor Minato had been found in the burned wreckage of a village raided by bandits. It'd been village policy to wipe young children's minds back then to spare them the trauma and a cynical attempt to gain soldiers that the Hokage's were overruled by until Sarutobi the old softy ran the law through threatening to take it to the daimyo.

But that seal brought up questions, stories of the Rikudō Sennin's origins once denounced as fairy tales by her began to make Mito uneasy. That mark was on a story book her grandmother had inherited from hers by oral tradition and so on since the beginning of the age of chakra. That was told to those that… It couldn't be! Mito tried to deny what was blatantly in front of her. The power requirements alone… But it fit. All of the evidence fitted the brief burst of Biju chakra, the fuin on his stomach she could piece together could be used as a vessel for a greater power. The blank confused stare like the boy had no clue where he was… Naruto… Uzumaki…

She stared again one more time at him with her chakra senses. It was verified by the density of his chakras. But just to see such an impossibility existing right in front of her? Karma or some other god looked to be rewarding her or was it a curse? Was it a sign of times to come? Was he going to play a part in the future with her disappearing with the old guard?

"All of you retreat to the town. I need to speak to him alone."

"But…"

"Now _Eagle_ before I report you for your insubordination," Mito warned, rarely using that tone of voice had them retreating to the minimum point they were allowed to stare back at.

Mito approached him. She treated him like a spooked cat she was coaxing to come to her, Naruto the _time traveller_ it seemed to indicate was wary now. The teenager looked positively exhausted but wouldn't let his guard down around the harmless old woman. In time Mito pulled out from under her sleeve her husband's forehead protector she kept under her wrist and showed it to him.

Naruto visibly softened at the symbol. Another clue revealed of her theory. The blonde child walked over to her unabashed at his nakedness and motioned to be given the headband. Mito complied and handed it to the teenager who treated it like a wonder of the world. He caressed the soft steel, tracing the symbol and rubbed the fabric. Mito looked on forensically analysing him, blatantly walking around him and the blonde man followed her turning in a counter-clockwise circle pivoting one foot until he was aware moving anymore meant turning his back on the ANBU, his onetime aggressors. Mito kept going however slowly, creating trust with each other until she stepped forward two steps and reached out to touch the marking.

"Naruto," Naruto said again.

"I'm Mito," Mito introduced, glaring at the shifting ANBU to stay where they were. "You're named Naruto?"

"I'm Naruto," Naruto agreed, treating it as the moment to open the floodgates after so much time being stoic, "But I don't know where I am. Where am I? Why did those people in the masks try to hurt me? I didn't do anything to them I promise Mito." Naruto held out the headband and asked a silent question with his eyes. Mito chuckled at what he wanted to do. He reminded her of Nawaki, Kami bless his soul.

"Let me Naruto," she offered and Naruto relented to her. The shorter woman on her tip toes wrapped her husband's headband, her keepsake nobody else had been allowed to touch not even her children since Hashirama had died around his forehead. It framed his face nicely and kept his long hair in line. "Now don't we look handsome?"

Naruto grinned brightly at Mito relaxing at her gentle voice. The teenager ran a finger across the metal and felt at ease. Mito indulgently grinned at him with her eyes closed, a very unsafe method of interaction around a strange trained killer or what he could've been.

More pieces of the legend were starting to fit. That seal was a contract between the Shinigami and a human who wished to defy time. The Rikudō Sennin was said to some to have come from a different time period far in the future. The age of chakra had been so fast, so sudden that some wondered how this mythical person could accomplish it and do so much with it within one lifetime. Then among the Uzumaki, an artisan from long ago perhaps a lover drew a famous naked drawing supposedly of said man that had been destroyed with the village. On it with his back exposed was the marking Naruto now had. Naruto, his name was the anchor to keep his existence in reality when crossing through the time period. Maybe the leaf symbol was also a trigger, a sign of who to trust left over or negotiated between the Shinigami and Naruto. In exchange the teenager or person was denied knowledge of anything pertaining to that future and the more they went back the less they kept.

This poor boy must've gone so far back into the past his entire self was gone. But the knowledge he had gained, jutsu, taijutsu whatever remained with that person. It was supposed to be why the Rinnegan wielding Rikudō Sennin could teach five elemental chakras, master them even if the average soul took a lifetime to learn two and why the infamous eyes hadn't been seen since. It promoted the idea some of the myths were fanciful but thinking on it maybe there was some truth to it. Sarutobi knew three elements (he'd tried to learn water and lightning with limited success suggesting the Rikudō Sennin's legend had been blown out of proportion) could but he was an anomaly and less said about Ōnoki the better. That man had survived a battle with Uchiha Madara in his prime.

"Does it look nice on me Mito?" Naruto asked innocently. "You're a nice lady," he added, running his hand through his fringe nervously. The blonde teenager looked adorably vulnerable.

"You're a very polite young man Naruto. I was hoping you might want to come with me to my home. I can get you some clothes and we can have a nice long chat about anything you want to know."

"Will the masked men follow us?" Naruto asked betraying his unease. His cuts were already scabbing over, more evidence of him being an Uzumaki. Heightened healing was a bonus required for anyone wanting to live a long time.

"No they won't Naruto-chan," she promised, watching him for his reaction to the honorific. To her pleasure Naruto hugged her and over his shoulder Mito glared so fiercely at her ANBU to back off. The trust had been formed. This poor soul was a time traveller and had no idea why he went back in the first place. She decided not to reveal to anyone of who he was or what he'd done. She wasn't going to take the risk someone trying to repeat the disaster and Kushina the other survivor was too young to remember such fanciful stories. This jutsu would disappear with Naruto Uzumaki. "Naruto?"

"Yes Mito?" Naruto asked, pulling away from the hug but eager to be nice to her. "Are we going to get some clothes for me? I'm feeling cold now."

"Of course Naruto-chan," Mito promised sincerely, "But I need to do something for you first. It's something that'll protect you from bad people."

"Like the masked men?"

"No they aren't bad people just very protective of me." She said that loudly to the ANBU who retreated again to where they were supposed to be. Mito compared them to impatient children on Christmas morning. "I'm very important and special just like you."

Naruto cocked his head and blushed slightly. Mito chuckled indulgently at his childish gesture.

"I need you to let me touch your back. There's something there that's bad for you. Can you do that for me Naruto-chan?"

"Okay," Naruto agreed without arguing. The blonde turned around and spread out his legs unfortunately allowing his dangly bits to wave in the air. The boy had no shame; Mito would need to fix that. Oh but so much for him to learn. It would be like raising a child again and that thought gave her back all her positivity. Motor skills such as holding chopsticks might be possibly still there but ethics, morals and standards of decency? Kushina would have one hell of a time reining in her little brother…

"This might sting a bit okay?" Mito was given an affirmative and she set to work. Drawing her chakra was painful without assistance but she managed with her exceptional control without Kyubi mucking it up to light up her fingertips and burn the mark completely off Naruto's back. He hissed but didn't move. Mito frowned at his familiarity with pain. Whoever conditioned him this well was lucky they were in the future or she would have punched them hard. "There all done."

"I'm better now?"

"Very much so Naruto-chan," Mito promised, sighing in relief that he couldn't be attacked by enemies anymore after his miracle. "But I need one more thing from you."

"Okay," Naruto agreed without finding out what it was. He was rubbing his sore back but kept that incorrigible smile.

"I need a sample of your blood."

"My blood?" Naruto said slowly.

"Yes to make sure there's nothing wrong with you Naruto-chan. You can keep my forehead protector if you do it."

"No problem," Naruto beamed, offering an arm. Mito smiled at how easy it was to bribe this gentle soul.

"You need to ask Crane over there. I promise she isn't a bad girl aren't you Crane?"

"No Mito-sama I'm… a good girl," Crane, a black haired Hyuga woman confirmed reluctantly.

"See Naruto-chan she's a good girl but of course we need to get home. I'm hungry. Are you?"

Naruto's stomach growled loudly and he patted it proudly as if the stomach telling her was something better than him saying anything.

"I'm hungry," Naruto beamed.

"Well I think growing boys should eat plenty. I think its ramen tonight."

"That sounds wonderful Mito," Naruto thanked profusely. He must've sensed her weakening (she was over 120 years old and ill) and plucked her up into his arms bridal style. His musculature in his chest area was very slight but firm like a swimmer or an athlete. Naruto was definitely shinobi trained.

But now she had to figure out when Uzumaki Naruto had become a Jinchuuriki. All evidence leaned to Kyubi being used as the power source for this miracle and figure out if she could who his parents were. She'd been putting two and two together now her brain was warmed up. Looking at the blonde hair, blue eyes and the tailed beast inside him at one time without suffering the side effects of said Biju taken away from him? She had to copy what she could of this seal and present it to Kushina to figure out without her catching on to what Naruto was?

Uzumaki Naruto was going to get a nice life starting anew from whatever horror drove him to do something so drastic. Amnesia or not he was going to be reborn just as she was about to depart this world forever to be reunited with her ancestors.

"Well then Naruto are you going to carry me or not?" Mito joked.

"Yeah Mito-chan!" Naruto said. Mito laughed so loudly even her ANBU winced at the random act of insanity. Hope blossomed in her withering body at this pure soul and a smile you couldn't nuke off her encouraged Naruto to return it.

"Well then let's get you home and everything you want to know answered Naruto-chan!"

It was the least Uzumaki Mito could do as her last good deed on this planet.

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A/N Next chapter her hunch is correct! But she's wrong too! Find out why on chapter 2!


	2. Chapter 2 Rumble In The Urban Jungle

Naruto: My way

The Red Tiger Of Konoha

By Heliosion

Chapter One: Rumble In the Urban Jungle

Disclaimer: In honour of the Uchiha clan I am issuing a new disclaimer which is this. If I owned Naruto I wouldn't have made it so Madara didn't take the piss with the super powers. Hey I'm bored I know I'll give myself the rinnegan! - Point taken no?

This is a reimagining of my original idea, 'The Red Hurricane of Konoha' based on comments and reviews regarding the quality. I have taken on the watchful eye of Maneyan whose fic 'Ouroboros' you should all check out right away as my beta or most accurately my stricter quality control expert! Thanks!

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Tanzaku Gai was a hell of a town. For a long time even dating before the rise of the elemental nations it had been a rich city with a powerful lord in charge. It had won its old money through aggressive territorial expansion, building a strong castle and city walls to attract people eager to stay out of the fighting. But when the wars ended and the fire nation became a reality it lost its sovereign power with the rise of Konoha at the beck and call of the fire daimyo. But like its struggles in the past the town had not faded. Instead of a lord they had a governor who lived his way just as ritzy as before in the old seat of power. What replaced the wars was tourism. On the surface it was glitzy, rich and prosperous that had earned its riches from its casinos, hotels and resorts. It was the city that never said die and it attracted people from all around even to this day.

But what most people did not see was the underbelly of the city. Instead of wars fought from outside the walls instead gang warfare rippled through the impoverished areas of the magnificent city. These were the areas, the slums that instead of justice, chaos reigned. In places where life is as cheap as the people are poor nobody from the outside came in without an illicit reason in mind.

One of these illicit pleasures was the underground fight scene. Officially banned during the formation of the Fire nation as an attempt to centralise all armies within the court and the shinobi village of Konohagakure no Sato, unofficially some members of the court looked the other way with the right amount of coin in their pockets. These battles of will, grit and blood were banned to those who possessed chakra or wielded a weapon. It was bare faced brawling of the purest sort and people paid to see the blood, drink the illicit imported booze and gamble on who the winners would be. It was a sport for the rich and spoiled.

There were many of them built here in and around the area of Tanzaku Gai depending of course on how wealthy you are. One such arena, the one anyone who was something in this town or rich enough to afford to buy an invitation was within a hairs width of the police station for the area. Built underground it used the façade of the poor area around it to hide it from obvious sight within the shell of what had once been a successful merchant's pavilion. What appeared to be a relic of a dying age (to help the case for plausible deniability with the chief of police who knew where it was and actually here this night) on top was the lap of debauched luxury beneath.

The bunker, a product of the original owner's paranoia with the past warring era was perfect for the task of holding illegal brawls. While in theory the packed space should be roasting hot in the soft evening summer heat together with the people cramped inside like a can of sardines it was gratefully cooled by the soft whirling fans overhead. Hot lights beamed down mood lighting from the low ceiling onto the rich and decadent people that sat inside it. In the back were private booths, secluded and draped in shadow for the privacy of the customers that required discretion. While around the fighting arena, a brittle wooden cage on top of a crude cement floor in other words the centrepiece of the arena were open circular tables straddling the perimeter. These up close positions were for the eager ones desperate for the action up close and had no fear of repercussions for openly announcing their interest and did not fear losing everything if someone were to raid it. There the round tables proximity to the chaos could splatter their customers to their heart's content in wood splinters, teeth, bodily fluids and even the fighters themselves if they caved through the fragile arena that these people seemed to relish.

Frittering around like a hive of angry bees were the famous failed geisha girls of Tanzaku Gai where the prettiest failures could always find work in sordid holes like this. They were dressed in nothing but a thin kimono emphasising their feminine curves and reminding everyone as they took their drink orders from a well-stocked bar on one corner that they had _other_ jobs apart from serving drinks if those people were so inclined to sample. Extra _tasks_ that spat on their delicate and sophisticated training of their younger years that could see them disappear to 'service' those that required special attention.

Tonight it was as usual a full house, filled to the brim almost bursting with the rich and feckless children whose parents paid their way through life. Some of the people here though were fighters taking turns to entertain the crowd that normally wouldn't breathe the same air as them and enjoying pretending that in this unfair world that one this this could be their lives if they worked hard enough. In the arena two warriors fought a one sided war, draped only in shorts and bandages around their shins and forearms.

The winning fighter in the green trunks flowed like a butterfly and stung like a bee. His furious jabs, kicks and flowing elbow locks had won him the better part of fifteen fights already tonight. The crowd were loving him when only a couple of hours before they had jeered him for his black bowl cut black hair, his stage name as the 'Youthful Avenger' and of course the ridiculous demon mask that looked like it had been bought at a market stall.

It was only more hilarious in an inside joke sort of way that the mask had _been_ bought from a market stall some twenty minutes before the night had started.

Meanwhile watching patiently from the safe distance of the bar a pretty bishōnen, with shoulder length shaggy red hair and dressed in finery belonging to a merchant of wealthy standing watched on. He gave the airs of someone only partly interested in the fighting while entertaining the harem of girls which his wily conversational charm and of course his money had attracted like flies on shit. He was in his idea of heaven, letting the real reason without any real resistance why he had come here drift from his mind aided by booze and of course the succulent flesh that was on offer for the right price.

"So I was telling my servant in my summer house that if he didn't fix the rose gardens by the time I returned next week I would flog him."

"Do you own many homes then Uzumaki-sama?" asked a flirtatious blonde girl, forward she had been all night holding his arm, pressing her excellent bosoms into his muscled arm while ordering drinks and many of the girls around her deferred to her. Already Naruto had picked her out as the 'nee-chan' of the brothel they all worked for and at her age, just two years shy of his own at twenty five years of age she would be running out of time to find a husband before most would dismiss her as used goods. Her whorish lifestyle wouldn't be doing her any favours either.

"I have five I think," the man lied, his blue eyes sparkling mischievously, "One in Tetsu no Kuni, another in Kaze no Kuni and one here of course," he paused for their fake laughter as they pretended to be enraptured by his bullshit when he could almost see the money signs in their eyes, "And I can't remember the rest really," he drawled dismissively in an arrogance only a rich carefree rich man could talk like, "I just buy them for tax reasons or rather my secretary does my sweet Kasumi-chan." His lop sided smile earned him a practised giggle that did not belong to a woman of her age and nodded to the bartender, a balding middle aged muscle man with a limp, most probably a failed fighter to get her and her friends another drink on his tab. "Who wants another drink?"

That won over his new lady friends who all called out their orders to the barman. He leaned back on the bar confidently; jangling the pouch of money he had pilfered before coming here on the street and projected that cocky, untouchable look like a native of this den. Nobody would question he was born to spend his days in these sort of places with loose women hanging off him like leaves on a tree. One eye always tracked the room unconsciously while the other was kept on the women like he was a thirsty man that had just found an oasis.

The fine spider silk kimono he wore was also stolen and had been an utter bitch to acquire from the favourite cousin of the fire daimyo whom had also been kind enough to make a donation to his night out. A few good punches to the face to render the man unrecognisable and then enthralling him plus his samurai guards under the influence of a hallucinogenic gas would no doubt all wake up somewhere tomorrow probably the local jail with the mother of all headaches. Of course once the cousin was coherent he would more than likely raise hell and rattle the cage of the police chief sitting at a front row table watching the action with a pretty little thing who was _definitely_ not his wife.

The masked warrior in the cage was having too much fun with the black haired man he was beating to a pulp. While you had to admire the tolerance to pain his opponent had the masked man and his sparkling grin told you everything about how unfairly matched these two warriors were. The raven haired man's blows went unnoticed by the armour plated eight packed chest of the 'Youthful Avenger' whose return exchanges were loud enough for the fake merchant at the bar to hear over the buzz of the people watching. He could count through the thick blackening bruises and contusions that four ribs had been snapped, his eye socket was cracked and the eye itself was precariously close to popping out. Well really his eyes overall were glazing over from the pain and it would only be another minute or so before the chump fell down to never get up again.

Nor did the man really care of what happened to the guy whose name he hadn't bothered to remember. It was pretty pointless when the masked warrior was guaranteed to win. He didn't need chakra to fight battles to the death. That was the reason the lothario was so wary of him. The sculpted body was built for maximum performance through more than mere blood, sweat and tears. It was designed to kill in one blow and the red haired man had seen that actually happen on the battlefield when one particularly rage filled punch snapped the neck of an enemy jounin in one clean chin shot. The ladies' man would kill for a body that perfect but didn't have the drive to attain it in anyway. His honeyed words outmatched physical perfection anytime.

"Are you enjoying the fight Uzumaki-sama?" Kasumi's words were like honey in his ear, her hands did not grope but rather caressed his arm with her eyes lidded but deep within them the man could see her calculating nature inside them. He was not someone ruled by his sex drive but rather embraced it with cold hard logic that let him stay unattached whilst on the job.

"It's fun, I suppose," Uzumaki mused, his hand offering feather touches over her arm that had her swooning. It was only fair play after all. "But I know what might be more _fun_," he added suggestively, before abruptly using his other hand to catch his drink and wrap it around her slender waist to pull her closer enough for him to take a sip of the sweet sake.

"_Naruto focus on your mission!"_ It was shouted so suddenly from a hidden earpiece that he flinched nearly out of his skin and let go of his drink until his slip was covered by a very well-practised hand version of the tree climbing exercise. It gripped onto the glass like a sucker cup and the jump was disguised by him moving forward and stealing a hickey on Kasumi's neck. _"I mean it Naruto! You have to keep watch and be ready once we identify all the combatants."_

Naruto as he was identified maintained his act, licking his beautiful companion's newest puncture wound sensually, vibrating his tongue with chakra. It was an old trick he had learned after sneaking into the seduction kunoichi lessons at the academy and a lifetime of experience both in Konoha and back home where the man had been born that had the woman's knees almost give out on her. He embraced her, pretending to shuffle her around to face the eastern tables where a grey haired man with his hair almost upright sat alone nursing a glass of water. The man was stiffly counting money, most of it counterfeit to hide the fact his clothes did not match the décor of the room or the wealth its inhabitants practically radiated like killing intent.

"I think that bought you another drink my dear Kasumi-chan," he drawled, brushing his hand over her rear as she regained her ability to walk that everyone else would assume was due to her intoxication. It was better rather than anyone finding out a recklessly trained jounin was using one of his old playlist to cover up the unwanted noises in his ear jolting him like a spooked dog. As he finished his drink dramatically by leaning back with his woman for the night outwards his middle finger subtly on his glass showed his displeasure at the grey haired jounin who raised both dark eyes eyebrows in disapproval before looking back to the fight where the masked warrior was treating the defeated foe like a football.

"Of course it does," Kasumi said breathlessly, accidently brushing the juncture between her legs against his robe that A: Informed the shinobi that she didn't wear panties and B: She was either very aroused or the girl had pissed herself. It had been known to be either one in his long life of trawling bars but he sincerely hoped it was the _former_. The latter would wound his ego. "For everyone right girls since you are such a gentleman Uzumaki-sama."

"That is Naruto to you my beautiful flower," Naruto flirted, over the feminine calls of agreement, his six feet of height dominated the fragile woman with ease as he stole another intimate gesture, this time a kiss from her pouty lips. As he departed he teased her reddening cheeks by tracing the width of one with the edge of his tongue and smirked. "Barman more drinks!"

A great crash echoed through the arena, rendering all conversation moot. His ninja trained senses followed the origin of the unusual noise only for him to smirk and be among the first to cheer raucously when the masked man's battle had ended with his defeated bloody foe smashed through the wooden cage. He cheered even louder when the body landed onto the table the money counting bastard had been sitting. The masked warrior had his arms in the air roaring loudly, proudly displaying his latest victory and jumping up and down on his toes in celebration. Naruto toasted the fighter with his refreshed drink when they both caught the other's eye. The red haired man covered the tiny acknowledgement by whooping loudly like a typical male enjoying the blood smeared over the granite torso, boulder like hands and spear shaped feet.

"And there you have it!" bawled a middle aged man with balding hair and scraggly moustache. Naruto paid special attention to the microphone holding announcer and the sword packing man who stood just behind him identified as a bodyguard. "The Youthful Avenger wins yet another fight tonight! Do we have anyone else who will challenge the champion as the prize money is now twenty thousand ryo?!"

While it was not a fortune or even mere pocket change to some of the high rollers sitting here, twenty thousand big ones could buy you the best dump in this area and still have enough money to live it up in the red light district two blocks down for a year. Not bad for a night's work.

Nobody answered the call at first and Naruto could hardly blame them. The masked warrior had obliterated every challenge that dared to stand up to him. Not one soul had been spared utter annihilation and humiliation from a man that had the most ridiculous get up in the arena's history. But it was too early for everyone to be attending to their drinks instead of watching the fighting unfold. The mission's secondary objective hadn't been achieved and that needed time to locate the targets in the crowd.

"I will throw in twenty thousand more for anyone with the balls to get in there," Naruto shouted, deliberately slurring his words and waving his glass around spilling it everywhere. He apologised with his eyes to his companion and nodded to the barman to serve the posse of women another round. That soon had her forgiving him with her hand wandering lower than what was socially accepted. But Naruto on the other hand... His dirty grin had the men in the room watching him cheering as he threw the coin purse across the room. Oh and 'accidently' striking the back of the grey haired man's head who was not supposed to show his shinobi training to dodge plus very likely if Naruto knew the man as well as he did would be grinding his teeth at having to take the jeering thrown at him.

Well what do you expect when someone was being a party pooper?

"There you have it!" the man bellowed self-importantly, "We have someone who really wants to enjoy the carnage tonight!" Naruto proudly took a bow at the cheering aimed at him and smirked at the girls giggling on cue at his antics. "I too will throw in another ten grand for anyone man enough to get in the arena with this man," he added pointing to the bowl cut muscle bound man who merely punched the side of the arena, knocking a piece of wood clean off that flew through the air and embedded itself in the wall. As expected everyone cheered at the feat of taijutsu and outshouted the masked pulveriser when he roared at the top of his lungs.

"I'll do it!" screeched a pretty boy who belonged on the cover of a movie poster sitting at a back table. He was not someone physically intimidating with a slender nearly scrawny build but his samurai links from the katana and wakizashi he carried over his formal kimono announced he had had _some_ training. Naruto had paid more attention to his beautiful escort whom was very obviously displeased to be here at all. She was a pretty young thing, raised by a noble family perhaps for she looked small and feeble wearing a cloak of naivety that would give a con artist a happy day to exploit. One such con man licked his lips at the tasty morsel and wondered if he'd the time to charm her when her consort for the evening was busy having his face rearranged.

"We have a challenger! Come inside Honda-dono and challenge the unbeatable man for this evening!"

"_Gai-taichou,"_ the irritating communicator of the group who had the only transmitter for the sake of cover and unfortunately the link was rigged so everyone heard everything, _"Remember he is the governor's son and we cannot have you beat him to a pulp. If you have to just take a dive."_

"Yeah like that will happen," Naruto said under his breath. To ask the most competitive man in the universe to play nice was like asking a lion not to eat you. The man identified as Gai did not openly show his agreement to the plan instead grabbed one square of the wooden cage and crushed it between his fingers in an intimidating gesture. Honda-dono, the brat son of the governor stepped back in shock before determinedly (even if his face was utterly terrified) the brat marched forward into the arena, taking off his swords and his fancy clothing to be left in just his loin cloth. "That's what I thought."

"What did you think _Naruto_?" Kasumi asked oozing her charm with the permission she had earned to use his first name. The girls around him watched closely perhaps hoping he was a man of lavish tastes that only one woman could not sate at once.

"Nothing," Naruto said, holding the last three letters suggestively, "Just the stupid samurai wannabe is going to the hospital and leaving his woman to walk herself home tonight."

"That is too bad for her then," the blonde said with a hint of jealousy in her tone.

"Oh you don't need to be like that my sweet flower," he said, noting that he had maybe overdone the flirting as the girl was investing more effort than a working girl usually did. It burned him that the woman had decided she was going to get her paying client tonight when after this evening when all was said and done he wouldn't be here again. Or get the chance to bed her… "Jealousy gives you wrinkles and I…" His hidden hand formed half a seal and a subtle haze surrounded the duo. Like the man was massaging her whole body at once, a subtle genjutsu had her heart racing, her pulse well pulsing and all due to the artificial scent his genjutsu was channelling through her nose.

"Oh," Kasumi less than eloquently reacted to the treatment bastardised from medical jutsu meant for physical therapy.

He really owed Shizune for teaching him this one for it did not control anyone only magnified what was already there. She leaned this time into his touch, his fingers tracing her jaw line and continuing his statement from before pretending not to have heard her little sexy moan. "… I like you better when you are _happy_ Kasumi-chan," he mock scolded, "And not _silly_, _jealous_ Kasumi-chan when she has no reason to be." He kissed her nose and pointed to the fight, gesturing to a well-dressed bookie to approach him that was hovering like some kind of vulture.

"What's your bet sir?"

"Well Kasumi-chan?" he asked, gesturing to the fight where the old man was still blathering on about the fight like it was going to outmatch the battle of the valley of the end. Gai looked ready to break every bone in the pretty boy's face with the smug look that was (miraculously) plastered on his pale face that unfortunately was betrayed by his trembling body. The spoiled brat with perfectly pale skin that had never seen a day's work in his life apart from his calloused fingers was a dead man walking. "Choose a winner for me and I might treat you…" He smirked, doing a magic trick by making money appear between his fingers from out of nowhere, and used the other hand to trail a single digit down the length of her spine where it came to rest cupping her ass.

It took her a minute to answer him; her body was shivering from how aroused she was and her eyes wide watching the money and the bookie. In the rich part of society in Tanzaku town, it was a local custom when showing total trust and how much a man was enjoying a woman's company when they were given the chance to gamble with someone else's money. Her friends openly showed their rudeness by pointing at the money like it was one of the Ten Commandments he was holding.

"All of it on the Youthful Avenger," she said quietly, a first for tonight as she had the unfortunate habit that he could overlook of being a bit loud sometimes.

She was a smart girl as well and not blinded by the belief that rich instantly meant better like most working girls were afflicted with them only seeming the trappings of power earned off the backs of their ancestors. Not that it mattered as he wasn't pay for a damn thing this evening. That tab he was running up at the bar would remain unpaid.

"You heard my lady friend Mr bookie," Naruto drawled showing how much he genuinely didn't care about the money. You know just like a noble would act with airs of nonchalance regarding the sort of money thrown around that would feed a family of peasants for ten years. The bookie accepted the cash hurriedly and scurried away like the cockroach he was.

"That's it for bets people and now the fight will begin!" The announcer stepped back and was helped to his seat by the swordsman guarding him.

"_I spotted the other guards,"_ the radio barked out, _"At your six, seven and eight o'clock Naruto."_

Naruto used the fight that was just now the two men staring at each other as an excuse to scan the environment for the shinobi that were hidden guards for the man. He spotted one well-dressed man wearing black to cover the bulges that were weapons under his clothing on his six watching the fight. On his seven was another older man dressed the same but on a closer inspection recognised in the bingo book from the cross shaped scar around his left eye as a mass murderer from the last shinobi war who had a taste for raping women then burning them alive. The last one on his eight was a kunoichi, red haired with a transparently fake expression of euphoric bliss as she entertained someone, an old drunk by sitting on his knee and letting his hand roam unopposed under her kimono.

"This won't take long then," Naruto muttered knowingly. His evening of fun was going to come to an end sooner rather than later unfortunately. He could make it up for the premature anticlimactic end if they had the time back home. All targets on the intelligence file or rather the numbers had been confirmed on sight. It would be soon time to move into action, take names and then go home which by the time they arrived would be dawn and the brothels would be closed until midday.

"What won't take long?" Kasumi said, again showing her intense interest in him as she had twice heard something he had been saying only to himself quietly. He really should use his inside voice more.

"Nothing really," Naruto drawled, really annoyed that this one would elude him by the time the night was over. "I was just thinking on who would win the fight," he added, running a finger across her cheek, "And I think you chose the right guy."

Naruto rolled the girl around to face the arena where the duo hadn't stopped staring at each other. The pampered prince was still shaking though this time from the impatience and unwillingness to attack first and his stance was laughable. Gai, the 'Youthful Avenger' just stood there rigidly like he was a wall with his arms at his sides, totally unfazed and only allowed his pectoral muscles to dance like his hands would to dare Honda to charge. His masked eyes caught the gaze noticeably of the red haired shinobi and Honda with his stupid topknot saw this obvious trap as an opening as the moment to strike, shouting like a crazy man imagining magical pixies were chasing him.

Gai, the disciplined warrior of the purest sort did not flinch. He didn't blink or otherwise express anything at all almost as if the ninja was a statue with no life at all. It looked like the man was going to accept the blow the samurai was going to land to the chin until blink and you missed it (Naruto almost did) the anonymous warrior ducked down like lightning. With both fists extended Gai lunged throwing one open palm strike that shattered all the ribs on Honda's left side and then another with the other destroying the ribs on the right side. Altogether both blows added enough propulsion to the man caught in mid-air already to send the man crashing through the cage, causing the entire shaky wooden cage to collapse all around him.

Naruto on instinct dodged left to watch the human projectile fly across him where a hidden third sucker punch to the nose from a fist that moved faster than the eye could see both smashed Honda's nose and realigned his course so the man wouldn't damage the innocent booze. The stupid topknot styled boy's flight was interrupted by a thick supporting wooden beam directly adjacent to the bar. Honda literally slid down it leaving a bloody trail and covering up Naruto's sly attack. By this moment when everyone had their attention diverted from their surroundings the shinobi with the stolen duds already had his hands forming a genjutsu, creating feathers that put anyone snared to sleep and vanished into the ether.

The grey haired grumpy pants drinking the water removed his kimono dramatically showing off his sleeveless black shirt, black shorts with tape around the knees and a brown sheath focused on the middle of his back. It was holding a legendary sword that had been shattered and re-forged during the last shinobi war called the white light chakra sabre that had once been held by his legendary father before his sad end when the man committed suicide.

Of course Kakashi Hatake, the Shiro Ookami of Konoha would come fully prepared for a fight. He had even managed to bring his kunai holster and pouch for kami sake. Naruto had barely found the space in his kimono for the single kodachi that all merchants were permitted to carry by law to fend off bandits when travelling.

Gai on the other hand had just attacked with what he was already wearing claiming the good target everyone wanted a pop at, the rapist in blistering speed. He just vanished one second with no need of genjutsu and reappearing the next second with the gurgling sound of one very painfully dying man with a knee knifed literally through the guy's spine that had obviously ascended from his tail bone. Naruto could appreciate the skill of how that man had carefully made sure to destroy every organ and bone in its path. Hell Naruto was amazed the dying man could make any noise at all to announce to everyone searching where the taijutsu master had re-emerged. How thoughtful of the dead bastard…

Kakashi leapt for the kunoichi, his hands forming seals and lightning pouring from his whole arm. It took the form of a claw like gauntlet, his signature technique developed over many years and when his other hand drew his special tantō, white coloured chakra sprang from it like a whip. The woman parried the sword swipe with an armlet under her dress but it proved only to be a distraction for the slower, more cumbersome lightning to grab and electrocute her. It kept a firm grip cooking her like steak on a barbecue until she was let go to sizzle on the floor convulsing from the shock.

Naruto took the last one by surprise, stepping behind him as the unknown man held a kunai ready to fight and pulled him into a chokehold, letting the man bury the kodachi his own assassin had been carrying into his own back from his momentum whilst struggling. The last ninja futilely resisted, biting him ineffectually through the sleeve until he bled out and Naruto dropped him, reappearing with a nonchalant grin on his face.

"It is times like these Gai I remember why I don't spar with the _Konoha_ no Kedakaki Aoi Mōjū anymore," Naruto joked, throwing off the kimono at the feet of the sublime green beast of prey he was addressing. Underneath which had been a pain to keep concealed was his sleeveless skin tight shirt cut in the middle both sides to display tantalising glimpses of his hard work. Matching black pants of course were cut at the knees and the sandals he wore when really the trickster preferred his steel toe capped boots. Usually unlike Kakashi and Gai the red head didn't wear his jounin vest and rather preferred the skin tight look to make the ladies swoon that wouldn't have as much of an effect with the bulky vest on. He was really missing the polished arm and shin guards that with what he had been wearing wouldn't have mattered with the latter but his sense of fashion refused to have one without the other on.

"Did you get any guts on your knee this time Gai-taichou?"

"Show some professionalism Naruto-sempai," Kakashi scolded, both eyes narrowing as he tightened the strap on his forehead protector around his head, keeping the wild hair of his at bay, "We have a mission to perform still. The body guard with the sword is still standing."

Indeed the man with the sword that Naruto hadn't really paid attention to until now with a scraggly beard and beady eyes was still standing which was pretty impressive. Most samurai had chakra but never really used it apart from enhancing their physical abilities or channelling it through their swords if they could afford to commission such things. Usually with the rarity of chakra metal they were made into smaller weapons like the white chakra sword Kakashi had or the trench knives poor old Asuma Sarutobi proudly bore before he and his entire clan were stood on by the Kyubi early on in the battle.

"And is holding our target too," Naruto japed, eyes waggling, "Can you move fast enough to stop the idiot stabbing him taichou? I don't like bringing dead presents to our beautiful Kage like some lazy cat."

"Stay back," the samurai said, showing his cowardice by abandoning his honour and hiding behind the man he was hired to protect now sleeping like a baby. "You let me go and you can have him intact. He hasn't paid me in weeks but you do anything before I escape…"

"Blah, blah, blah," Naruto said mockingly, earning him a well-deserved scowl from Kakashi who hadn't lost that stick up his ass since they had first become acquainted over a decade ago at some bridge. Obito was way more fun to hang around with and even more so when he was making moon eyes at Rin who wouldn't give him the time or day. "Can I just kill him already?"

"Hurry it up then," Gai ordered, peeling off his mask and underneath smirking at the turn of events, "I want us to be extra youthful and get home with the package before dawn hits."

"Okay," Naruto agreed to the order and then disappeared in a puff of smoke. His invisibility technique shimmered away behind the swordsman, when upon he caught the man with both hands and viciously snapped his neck. He caught the falling announcer turned target with his foot and cheerfully caught the katana with his free hand. "Oh I got me a souvenir Gai-taichou. You want to see?"

"Naruto focus on your mission!" Kakashi snapped, "We don't have time for your games."

"You say something?" Naruto said his old faithful that guaranteed to rile the white wolf had worked again when the man tightened his hold over his weapon. "But really Kakashi you need you learn to lighten up man. We have the mission in hand, the target is apprehended for extraction back to Konoha and we can even report in just in time for the fair and wonderful Tsunade-sama to have her morning sake and read her mail."

"Now team," Gai interceded before Kakashi could retort, "Focus on the mission." It was easier said than done to a trickster like Naruto. The uptight Hatake clan head was so easy to mess with. The man made love to the rules, was overly organised and probably would make his reports if he could smell like daffodils if it meant he was in good with the Hokage. Still it amazed even him that the red headed Konoha no Aka Tora, the famous red tiger of the leaf village was friends with such a stroppy bastard.

Still it was fun to mess with him and when you got the man drunk he could let his hair down. It was like an event you enjoyed as rare as it was like an eclipse where if you looked away it would be gone especially now with the wife looming over him.

"I will search the back rooms for anymore hostiles that might have evaded Naruto-sempai's genjutsu before we leave," Kakashi offered, sheathing his sword and stalking to the very end of the bunker to start his search.

"Why does he never get you the chakra sensor to do that? It would only take you a minute."

"That is one of life's great mysteries Gai-taichou," Naruto shrugged, "But let him have his fun sir if he wants to waste time. I got better stuff to do anyway."

"Like what exactly?" Gai asked, stepping into the old trap.

Naruto let the man he was balancing perfectly on one foot go, his body hitting the floor hard. Then after grabbing the sheath to the katana he had acquired Naruto took a second to appreciate the blade before the red head sheathed it with one hand. Next he picked up a bottle of 'brown' alcohol from a nearby table and pulled up a chair to sit down on. He poured the alcohol gentlemanly into a glass and surveyed all the sleeping civilians.

"Fancy some," Naruto took a sniff wrinkling his nose "Brown booze taichou?"

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A/N There we go the newest and final version of my older Naruto series! Make sure to review!


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